View full sizeSARA GANIM, The Patriot-NewsBeaver Stadium at Penn State

The letter is quoted, in part:

"Yet, over and over again, I have heard Penn State officials decrying the influence of football and have heard such ignorant comments like Penn State will no longer be a 'football factory' and we are going to 'start' focusing on integrity in athletics. These statements are simply unsupported by the five decades of evidence to the contrary -- and succeed only in unfairly besmirching both a great University and the players and alumni of the football program who have given of themselves to help make it great.

"For over 40 years young men have come to Penn State with the idea that they were going to do something different — they were coming to a place where they would be expected to compete at the highest levels of college football and challenged to get a degree. And they succeeded — during the last 45 years NO ONE has won more games while graduating more players. The men who made that commitment and who gave of themselves to help build the national reputation of what was once a regional school deserve better than to have their hard work and sacrifice dismissed as part of a 'football factory,' all in the interests of expediency.

"Penn State is not a football factory and it is ALREADY a great University. We have world-class researchers, degree programs, and students in every discipline. Penn Staters have been pioneers in medical advancements, engineering, and in the humanities. Our graduates have gone on to change the world — even graduates with football lettermen sweaters."

Sandusky, Paterno's former assistant, was convicted last month of molesting 10 boys, some of them on the Penn State campus.

Paterno’s family said Tuesday night the university and its internal investigators have muzzled them, so his side of the Sandusky child sex abuse scandal “has never been fully told.” Former FBI director Louis Freeh was tasked by the PSU board of trustees to lead Penn State's internal
investigation of the Sandusky scandal.

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